About twenty-four hours after departing Dulles International, the first batch of SAIS students landed in Tbilisi just after midnight on Saturday, October 12th, 2019.
As we approached customs, Ahmad pointed out a large poster ad for an upcoming concert. It turns out that the date of the concert was February 23, 2019. That poster gave me a first impression that there would be a general lack of attention to aesthetics or detail in Tbilisi. After one day in the city, I can say that my first take was both so right... and so wrong.
Leading up to our trip to Georgia, there wasn’t much mention of Georgian architecture or design. My assumption was that it would be a blend between very old, old, Soviet, and modern. This is about right. It was a pleasant surprise when I walked into our hotel, which is housed in a building that was once a Soviet printing press. The use of steel, wood, and glass, the utilization of lighting, the attention to detail, and the countless potted plants and trees make the building unique; almost like walking into a trendy hotel in Soho.
A few hours of jetlagged sleep later, I mustered up the energy to get out of bed and start the day. We organically split in groups and went out to explore the city. Ohnsoon, Branko and I walked down Rustaveli Avenue and stopped at the first coffee shop we found. It was a small basement shop with modern décor. The entrance was lined with to-go cups that had drawings on them. Little did we know that the coffee shop was run by a barista and an artist, whose signature was drawing customers’ faces on cups. As we sipped our coffees and teas, listening to Gotan Project (Google it!) and having our faces drawn by a Georgian art student, a wave of SAIS students walked into the coffee shop, followed by another – all were clearly hypnotized by the word: COFFEE.
We continued our walk and joined Savannah and Krystian, who had a plan to see Kartlis Deda – a statue of a Georgian woman in traditional clothing built in 1958 – overlooking the city. According to some, the statue is often referred to as the mother of Georgia or the mother of a Georgian. We got to a vantage point where we could see up the Sololaki Hill and get a perfect view of the statue.
I was content with having seen the statue from a distance, but everyone else was adamant about needing to see it up close. This meant an uphill hike. Along the way, we passed stray cats, dogs, and even a duck that I never got to feed (thanks, Savannah). As we stood by Kartlis, we looked over the city, the landscape and the skyline of buildings both very old and very new.
We eventually made our way down to catch part of a Euro qualification football (soccer) match that had Georgia facing Ireland at the Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena. After being stuck in traffic so close to the stadium in our Bolt – Georgia's version of Uber – we decided to walk the rest of the way. Not having bought tickets ahead of time, we made our way to the office and bought tickets for just under $2. The stairs up to our seats felt as exhausting as our hike up the Sololaki, but soon it didn’t matter – the game was on!
Unfortunately, we only had time for part of the game to make it in time for our cohort dinner at Chela, a restaurant located in the Funicular Complex atop Mtatsminda Hill. This time we Bolted our way up the hill. After dinner, Avak and Ahmad stood outside in the Funicular Complex and tried their luck at a lone key master-like machine that had dusty and outdated prizes. It would make what we could only describe as a poorly recorded Soviet laugh when we missed the target.
As I walked around the open space and admired the view of the city from the hilltop, I remembered the poster in the airport. My first impression of Tbilisi was very right and very wrong. The city seems to be a real mix, with parts that show great attention to aesthetics and others that, well, really don’t!
-- Abdulla, Cohort 4